Amid sporadic incidents, West Bengal had second phase of general Election

Amid reports of few violent incidents, vandalising EVM machines or vehicle of a candidate, attacks on journalists, firing of tear gas, Election Commission has referred the polling as ‘overall peaceful.’

Siliguri: West Bengal had the second phase of general election on Thursday with polling in three Lok Sabha constituencies, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Raiganj. Amid reports of few violent incidents, vandalising EVM machines or vehicle of a candidate, attacks on journalists, firing of tear gas, Election Commission has referred the polling as ‘overall peaceful.’

while Vivek Dubey, special police observer said, “Barring few isolated incidents, the election remained overall peaceful,” as expected, none of the political parties have left any scope to complain against others. All the constituencies witnessed overall polling of around 75% till 6PM.

Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, consisting three assembly segments from hills and four from plains, remained in national focus with main contesting candidates from BJP, TMC, Left Front and INC. Traditionally, over 7 lakh voters from hilly region out of total 16 lakh always remain highly consolidated with their demand of separate statehood. Support of this block vote decides fate of the constituency as plains as usual remain divided among important candidates. BJP enjoyed easy and heavy margin win with this support in 2009 and 2014. But following political steps initiated by TMC, this block vote under hill party Gorkha Janamukti Morcha(GJM) got divided into two parts of almost equal strength in 2017. While one supported TMC this time, the other went with BJP. Eventually, the seat has become equally tough for both. Eventually, Darjeeling witnessed many unpleasant incidents. Darjeeling had heavy deployment of 66 company central forces.

A traditional left bastion with tea gardens and agriculture bases economy, Jalpaiguri went to TMC in 2014 after the party ensured a hefty vote share growth of 30%. But BJP also secured 8% growth while Left and INC lost their vote share for 13% and 30% respectively. In 2019, while TMC remained desperate to retain the seat, BJP left no scope to gain it.

Raiganj, a traditional INC stronghold, went to LF in 2014. Despite vote loss of 10%, LF won it at a narrow margin over INC that recorded 22% vote loss. But BJP and TMC both grew by 14% and 17%. BJP never considered the seat as an easy one due to heavy share of Muslim populace in its demography. Eventually, while LF remained adamant to retain the seat this time, TMC and BJP went full steam ahead to win it.

While vehicle of Raiganj LF candidate Md. Salim was vandalized, complains of booth jamming, attack on journalists, breaking of EVM or violence have come from many places . At Chopra in the constituency, police had to fire tear gas to control mob where central force arrived hours after the incident. The constituency had 64 company central forces.